On GPS this Sunday, Fareed looks at the controversy over President Obama’s decision to nominate Chuck Hagel for the job of defense secretary. Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens debates Peter Beinart on whether Hagel is the right man for the job.

Then, are we facing a new Cold War? A look at why Russia and the United States are slipping into a legislative tit-for-tat.

In our What in the World segment, Fareed takes a look at the uncertain future of the country with the world’s largest oil reserves – what’s in store for Venezuela? And, can a single coin save the American economy? What if it’s a trillion dollar coin? Historian Bruce Bartlett and CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin weigh the proposal.

soundoff(19 Responses)

Joseph McCarthy

Is Chuck Hagel the right man for the Sec. of Defense? Definitely Yes! At least he's not just another run-of-the-mill right-winger waiting to take orders from the M.I.C. who wants to run absolutely everything in Washington D.C. I like the way he opposed the politics of hunger regarding Iran which is totally wrong.

AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, is consistently ranked in the top two most powerful lobbies in Washington.[38] And it is only one arm of the much larger, multi-faceted, and well-financed Israel lobby.[39]

According to Congressman Jim Moran, "AIPAC is very well organized. The members are willing to be very generous with their personal wealth. But it's a two edged sword. If you cross AIPAC, AIPAC is unforgiving and will destroy you politically. Their means of communications, their ties to certain newspapers and magazines, and individuals in the media are substantial and intimidating. Every [Congress] member knows it's the best-organized national lobbying force."[40]

Senator Joseph Lieberman proudly stated, "Any attempt to pressure Israel, to force Israel to the negotiating table by denying Israel support, will not pass in Congress… Congress will act against any attempt to do that."[41]

It's true: The US Congress, along with the executive branch, overwhelmingly support virtually any action or wish of the Israeli government, no matter how at odds with US national interest or security,[42] primarily because of the power of the Israel lobby.[43]

Even when two AIPAC employees were indicted on espionage charges in 2005, and it was determined that they had obtained classified US government information illegally and passed it to Israeli agents, the charges were quietly dropped on technicalities.[44] AIPAC fired both employees and issued a statement that they were fired because their actions did not comport with AIPAC standards.[45] One of the fired employees, Steven Rosen, filed a lawsuit for defamation, claiming his actions were, in fact, common practice at AIPAC.[46]

When Israel attempted to sink a U.S. Navy ship, the USS Liberty , in 1967, killing 34 Americans and injuring over 170, it still failed to put a dent in aid to Israel.[47] Indeed, aid quadrupled the following year.[48]

Though Congressmen receive payments and support from the lobby in exchange for their loyalty, the American taxpayer is left footing the bill. As detailed above, the total cost has run from a bare minimum of $112 billion since 1948 (the cost of foreign aid alone) to $1.6 trillion or more, factoring in Defense appropriations, oil crises, the sinking of the USS Liberty , the heightened risk of terrorism, lost trade and co-opted technology, and countless other factors. If the Iraq war and the increased risk of a war with Iran are factored in, the cost skyrockets even higher.

Great post! Hagel is a true American and he will be a great Def. Sec!!!

January 14, 2013 at 4:59 am |

rightospeak

Yes, he is the best choice. Finally, very smart decisions are coming out of the White House. I remember Hagel was the only smart one in DC to object to bombings of innocent civilians in Lebanon and dared to speak out to Bush . The other was Helen Thomas and we all know what happened to her . If you speak the truth the press will attack you as well as others who are on the take. I believe Hagel is honest, servant of the people and the best that could happen to Washington ,D.C. He will make an excellent Secretary of Defense because he knows what war is first hand . Hagel is good for the USA.

President Obama, stand up for Chuck Hagel and screw off Israel-Firsters and AIPAC. Israhell is a parasitic leech on America and has corrupted America's body politic.
The heck with Israhell and Nutty-Yahoo of Israhell.....if it walks like a parasitic leech, if it swims like a parasitic leech, and if it quacks like a parasitic leech, then it is Israhell, the parasitic leech sucking the life blood of We The American Taxpayers. Now it wants to see American men and women die for it. Screw Israhell and Nutty-Yahoo. My son, Jason, who is in the Marines said he did not sign up to fight for Israhell and that many of his brothers in arms say the same thing. He has already said that many of them will refuse orders if it means launching an immoral war against Iran for the benefit of PRECIOUS (said like Golem in the Lord of the Rings), ISRAHELL-HELL....' Nuff said!!!

Israhell is a parasitic leech on America and will not last as a nation given that it cannot succeed on its own but only as long as it can perpetually suck off the teat of the American taxpayers for free. This is a valid statement given that Israehell cannot sustain itself without leeching of WE THE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS....Economically it is not viable that a racist apartheid state can continue to leech tens of billions of dollars off of America for perpetuity as Americans are fed up with Israhell coming like hobo with cap in hand year after year after year.
Can Israel-Firsters not get it that America is broke and we need to look after our own needy who are in their tens of millions in the USA.
Fact is that Israel has to prosper on its own without parasitically leeching off of Americans and that is something that that nation is incapable of notwithstanding that Israel understands that living is easy if it is off the hard work of others, namely, WE THE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS!
Fact is that once aid from America stops, Israhell is no longer capable of sustaining itself and if a nation cannot sustain itslef on its own, it will vanish from history and that is a reality that will face Israel notwithstanding all the obfuscation and misrepresentations of what Iran or Ahmedinajad said!!!
Any readers wanting to re-post this article anywhere has my permission to do so as these "Never Again" Israel-Firster protesters that did Israhell's Nutty-Yahoo bidding by demonstrating in front of OUR President's campaign offices on September 29 are traitors to America who are corrupting America's body politic by putting the interests of that foreign power called IsraHell ahead of America's!!!!
These Israel–Firsters are clearly showing that their loyalty is to a foreign state called IsraHell and NOT to America.
They are trying to put a Holocaust guilt trip on Americans to get more Americans needlessly killed in useless wars for their PRECIOUS (said like Golem in the Lord of the Rings), Isra-Hell, in a way that will bankrupt the American treasury and put tens of millions of Americans out of work.
As many ordinary Americans are now saying, these Israel-Firster traitors can go and shove it as We The American Taxpayers are sick of the Holocaust Industry being rammed down our throats so that Israel-Firsters can leech our dollars off of it for the benefit of both themselves and Israhell which is the biggest parasitic leech on We The American Taxpayers for fifty plus years in the amounts in the hundreds of billions of dollars if not trillions of dollars with no end in sight.
Judaism is a noble religion and has given many noble values, principles, and precepts to all of humanity and we should not deny the Holocaust but pray for the victims of the Nazi's including Jews, Russians, Gypsies,among others.
The fact is though that it is sad that Hitler (who I unequivocally condemn), was so ashamed of his own Jewish Ashkenazim/Khazar/Berber origins that he murdered his own people in such horrendous numbers, and Israel-Firsters have ohhh so conveniently hidden or masked this fact for far too long!!!
The Holocaust did happen and we should be sad about it and the millions of other victims of the Nazis and of Hitler but let's not ignore the origins of those that did it either.
The reality is that Alfred Rosenberg wrote the ideology of the Nazis – wanna guess what his religious background was?
It's sad that a person with origins from a great religion like Alfred Rosenberg came from designed Nazi ideology....google and verify fer herself, Israel-Firsters 'cause yu kin run but yu cain't hide as sound items cain't cut it no more...
Incidentally, when was the last time that anyone here went to a museum on the terrible inhumanity of slavery?
How about a museum on the horrible treatment of American-Indians/South American Indians?
How about a museum on the scourge of colonialism and it's horrible effects to this day on billions of human beings in Asia, in Africa, in North and South America?
After all, these evils went on for centuries and affected billions of human beings all over the world while the Holocaust despite its terrible evils went on for a paltry four years between 1941-1945.
Where are all those other museums to man's inhumanity and why are we lambasted with the Holocaust all day and all night in every movie or tv show or news story and every museum on the street corner?
Why have people but especially Americans not had an opportunity to go these other Museums on slavery or colonialism et et?
I'll tell you why!
It is because other groups don't try to leech money off the miseries experienced by their people and other fellow human beings, and they have not made a business industry to profit off of these horrible activities for perpetuity as Israel-Firsters have done!!
It seems that Israel-Firsters want to hammer Americans and everyone else with the reality of the Holocaust that was instigated by a person of Jewish origin, namely, Adolph Hitler, on his own Jewish people, and they want to put the guilt of the Holocaust on each and every human being while hiding or obfuscating about the prominent role that people of Jewish origin played in this terrible event, and trying to portray it as the most terrible event that ever happened in human history. And all the while, they leech money of it in the most greedy immoral manner!!
Guess what, Israel-Firsters?
We Americans had nothing to do with the cannibalization of your people by one of your own, namely, Adolph Hitler, so it's time to end the business industry that you have made around the Holocaust and trying to profit off the miserable end of millions of innocent Jewish people in the gas chambers of Europe at the expense of decent hard working Americans!

Hitler 'had Jewish and African roots', DNA tests show
Adolf Hitler is likely to have had Jewish and African roots, DNA tests have shown.
Saliva samples taken from 39 relatives of the Nazi leader show he may have had biological links to the “subhuman” races that he tried to exterminate during the Holocaust.
Jean-Paul Mulders, a Belgian journalist, and Marc Vermeeren, a historian, tracked down the Fuhrer’s relatives, including an Austrian farmer who was his cousin, earlier this year.
A chromosome called Haplogroup E1b1b1 which showed up in their samples is rare in Western Europe and is most commonly found in the Berbers of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, as well as among Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews.
"One can from this postulate that Hitler was related to people whom he despised," Mr Mulders wrote in the Belgian magazine, Knack.
Haplogroup E1b1b1, which accounts for approximately 18 to 20 per cent of Ashkenazi and 8.6 per cent to 30 per cent of Sephardic Y-chromosomes, appears to be one of the major founding lineages of the Jewish population.
Knack, which published the findings, says the DNA was tested under stringent laboratory conditions.
"This is a surprising result," said Ronny Decorte, a genetic specialist at the Catholic University of Leuven.
"The affair is fascinating if one compares it with the conception of the world of the Nazis, in which race and blood was central.
“Hitler's concern over his descent was not unjustified. He was apparently not "pure" or ‘Ayran’.”
It is not the first time that historians have suggested Hitler had Jewish ancestry.
His father, Alois, is thought to have been the illegitimate offspring of a maid called Maria Schickelgruber and a 19-year-old Jewish man called Frankenberger.

Please John, the English language has a rather extensive vocabulary so that Tea Party lingo is quite unnecessary. Let's just leave that for the weak minded, right-wing, hateful Tea Partiers to use, shall we?

January 14, 2013 at 12:21 pm |

s silver

unf. Peter Beinart is the last Jewish person whose opinion I'm interested in. His bias is well known and he is proud to
write it. I, however, would prefer another voice such as Brett Stephens on this issue.

Brett Stephens denying there is a "Jewish Lobby" in the US is to insinuate that the Jews of America should not express themselves.They should and do. It may be harder for Americans to understand Israel politics, but essential that all Americans care and ultimately support Israel our extremely valuable ally in the Middle East.

Remember the USS Liberty and time to take back America.....the stench of Israel-Firsters and the United Rabbinate of America is becoming stronger and stronger as AIPAC and Israel-Firsters make America and Americans their lapdogs!
Israel-Firsters who would sell out the the USA for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and out source the job of the President of the United States of America to Israhell and its leader BeenYammerin' Nutty-Yahoo. Thanks to traitorous Israel-Firsters and other Republican and also Democratic politicians, they have made the US Congress Israhelli occupied territory as Pat Buchanan said.
Rabbis and their Israel-Firster buddies have made American politicians their lapdogs.
The USA has become a Rabbinate against the wishes of the American people and Israel-Firsters try to make Americans think that the mullahs are taking over the USA when AIPAC already has!

January 13, 2013 at 5:40 pm |

Ann

I love the outrage regarding supposed loose bandying of "anti-semitism" when hackneyed claims of "racism" are regularand commonplace and spewed at the drop of a pin, usually as an attempt to divert attention and stifle debate.

It is Redundant to Fox News today to have a Wall Street Journal writer like Stephens on GPS just play a bit from Fox. Since the buyout of the WSJ the grand business newspaper has lost a lot of credibillity. But keep up the coverage of all directions for creating thought.

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The Global Public Square is where you can make sense of the world every day with insights and explanations from CNN's Fareed Zakaria, leading journalists at CNN, and other international thinkers. Join GPS editor Jason Miks and get informed about global issues, exposed to unique stories, and engaged with diverse and original perspectives.